Distribution of Irrigated and Rainfed Agricultural Land in a Semi-Arid Sandy Area

Under water resource and terrain constraints, a certain scale threshold of irrigated and rainfed agricultural areas exists in semi-arid sandy areas. If this threshold is exceeded, water and soil resources will be unbalanced, and the ecological environment will deteriorate. Accurate assessment of the suitable scale of cultivated land in semi-arid sandy areas is of great significance for sustainable utilization of cultivated land resources and regional ecological security. Most existing research methods are based on water resource constraints and rarely consider terrain factors. Therefore, based on the principle of water balance and with the Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner as the research area, this study adopted a multi-objective fuzzy optimization model and relative terrain index analysis method to explore the appropriate spatial ratio of irrigation and rainfed agriculture. The results show that the area of irrigated agriculture in the study area is 77,700 hm2, and the appropriate scale is 91,700 hm2. The current area of dry farming is 184,600 hm2, and the suitable scale is 117,100 hm2. The results also show that the utilization efficiency of water and soil resources in irrigated agriculture was not optimal, rainfed agriculture exceeded its suitable scale, and water and soil resources were seriously unbalanced. However, the region of cultivated land that exceeds the appropriate scale is mostly located in an area with poor terrain, less precipitation, and other unsuitable conditions for cultivation, which is prone to abandonment, resulting in deterioration of the ecological environment. Therefore, the spatial layout of agricultural land use in the study area should be adapted to local conditions, and the water-saving structure of irrigated agriculture should be optimized to achieve the maximum comprehensive benefits. Dry farming should be controlled on a reasonable scale, and the part exceeding the appropriate scale should be returned to grassland to ensure sustainable development

MRA-free intracranial vessel localization on MR vessel wall images.

Analysis of vessel morphology is important in assessing intracranial atherosclerosis disease (ICAD). Recently, magnetic resonance (MR) vessel wall imaging (VWI) has been introduced to image ICAD and characterize morphology for atherosclerotic lesions. In order to automatically perform quantitative analysis on VWI data, MR angiography (MRA) acquired in the same imaging session is typically used to localize the vessel segments of interest. However, MRA may be unavailable caused by the lack or failure of the sequence in a VWI protocol. This study aims to investigate the feasibility to infer the vessel location directly from VWI. We propose to synergize an atlas-based method to preserve general vessel structure topology with a deep learning network in the motion field domain to correct the residual geometric error. Performance is quantified by examining the agreement between the extracted vessel structures from the pair-acquired and alignment-corrected angiogram, and the estimated output using a cross-validation scheme. Our proposed pipeline yields clinically feasible performance in localizing intracranial vessels, demonstrating the promise of performing vessel morphology analysis using VWI alone

Improved optical limiting of triazine-linked mono-, bis- and tris-phthalocyanines

We studied the photophysical dynamics and optical limiting properties of a series of triazine-linked mono-, bis-, and tris-phthalocyanines with central metal In for 532nm-7ns laser pulses. We used Crank-Nicholson numerical method to solve two-dimensional paraxial field equation and rate equations. Phthalocyanines are simplified to a five-level model to simulate the optical dynamical processes. We found the sequential (singlet–singlet) × (triplet–triplet) two-photon absorption is the prominent optical limiting mechanism for long pulses. Our work indicates that triazine-linked mono-, bis-, and tris-phthalocyanines exhibit excellent optical limiting behaviors, and tris-phthalocyanine shows the best properties

Landscape ecological risk assessment of the Hailar River basin based on ecosystem services in China

The study aims to clarify the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of landscape ecological risk in Hailar River basin in recent 30 years, and to serve for scientific formulation of ecological management strategies. In the study, ecosystem services were used to improve the traditional landscape ecological risk assessment method, and the theoretical basis of landscape ecological risk was clarified using the human-nature system method. The results show that, on the spatial scale, the overall landscape ecological risk of Hailar River basin is characterized by high in the middle and low around. The high-risk areas are mainly located in the transition zone of “urban-grassland” and “urban-forest” in the middle of the basin and the main mining areas, which are distributed in strips along the main roads and rivers. Low risk areas are mainly distributed in the Great Khingan Mountains forest area in the east and north of the basin. In terms of time scale, the landscape ecological risk in the edge of the watershed has always maintained a high proportion of low-risk areas (75.35 %), while the area of high-risk areas in the middle of the watershed has experienced a process of first increasing and then decreasing. In terms of ecological governance, high-risk areas should achieve orderly urban construction and orderly development of mineral resources, and establish a classified management system of natural resources. Low risk areas should continue to promote measures to prohibit logging and limit grazing, and establish a supporting ecological compensation mechanism. The conclusion shows that urbanization, mineral development and management, and the implementation of forest and grass policies are the main driving factors for the change of landscape ecological risks in Hailar River basin. The basic principles of zoning control and human land coordination should be adhered to, and the size of cities and towns should be adjusted reasonably to promote the orderly development of mineral resources and the orderly construction of projects

Table1_Transcriptome analysis of megalurothrips usitatus (Bagnall) identifies olfactory genes with ligands binding characteristics of MusiOBP1 and MusiCSP1.DOCX

The olfactory system is an important component of insect behavior and is vital for survival and reproduction. However, the genomic characterization and molecular basis of the olfactory response of Megalurothrips usitatus remain relatively unknown. RNA sequencing-built developmental transcriptomes of nymphs, pupae, and adult M. usitatus were examined in order to establish the sequence-based background of M. usitatus olfactory responses. A total of 56,669 unigenes were annotated using GO, NR, Pfam, eggNOG, SwissProt, and KEGG. The number of differentially expressed genes between pupae and nymphs, males and nymphs, and females and nymphs were 10,498, 9,235, and 10,964, respectively. One odorant-binding protein (MusiOBP1) and one chemosensory protein (MusiCSP1) were selected from the transcriptome, and their full-length sequences were obtained using RACE PCR. The relative expression of MusiOBP1 was the highest in primordial females, whereas the relative expression of MusiCSP1 was the highest in primordial pupae. The strongest binding ability to the odor-binding protein MusiOBP1 was observed for β-citronellol. 3-Hydroxy-2-methyl-4-pyrone showed the strongest binding affinity to MusiCSP1. Our analysis suggests that MusiOBP1 and MusiCSP1 may play significant roles in mediating M. usitatus host recognition. This research will improve our knowledge of odorant-binding proteins and chemosensory proteins, which will in turn improve our understanding of insect olfactory systems.</p

DataSheet4_Transcriptome analysis of megalurothrips usitatus (Bagnall) identifies olfactory genes with ligands binding characteristics of MusiOBP1 and MusiCSP1.docx

The olfactory system is an important component of insect behavior and is vital for survival and reproduction. However, the genomic characterization and molecular basis of the olfactory response of Megalurothrips usitatus remain relatively unknown. RNA sequencing-built developmental transcriptomes of nymphs, pupae, and adult M. usitatus were examined in order to establish the sequence-based background of M. usitatus olfactory responses. A total of 56,669 unigenes were annotated using GO, NR, Pfam, eggNOG, SwissProt, and KEGG. The number of differentially expressed genes between pupae and nymphs, males and nymphs, and females and nymphs were 10,498, 9,235, and 10,964, respectively. One odorant-binding protein (MusiOBP1) and one chemosensory protein (MusiCSP1) were selected from the transcriptome, and their full-length sequences were obtained using RACE PCR. The relative expression of MusiOBP1 was the highest in primordial females, whereas the relative expression of MusiCSP1 was the highest in primordial pupae. The strongest binding ability to the odor-binding protein MusiOBP1 was observed for β-citronellol. 3-Hydroxy-2-methyl-4-pyrone showed the strongest binding affinity to MusiCSP1. Our analysis suggests that MusiOBP1 and MusiCSP1 may play significant roles in mediating M. usitatus host recognition. This research will improve our knowledge of odorant-binding proteins and chemosensory proteins, which will in turn improve our understanding of insect olfactory systems.</p

Table6_Transcriptome analysis of megalurothrips usitatus (Bagnall) identifies olfactory genes with ligands binding characteristics of MusiOBP1 and MusiCSP1.docx

The olfactory system is an important component of insect behavior and is vital for survival and reproduction. However, the genomic characterization and molecular basis of the olfactory response of Megalurothrips usitatus remain relatively unknown. RNA sequencing-built developmental transcriptomes of nymphs, pupae, and adult M. usitatus were examined in order to establish the sequence-based background of M. usitatus olfactory responses. A total of 56,669 unigenes were annotated using GO, NR, Pfam, eggNOG, SwissProt, and KEGG. The number of differentially expressed genes between pupae and nymphs, males and nymphs, and females and nymphs were 10,498, 9,235, and 10,964, respectively. One odorant-binding protein (MusiOBP1) and one chemosensory protein (MusiCSP1) were selected from the transcriptome, and their full-length sequences were obtained using RACE PCR. The relative expression of MusiOBP1 was the highest in primordial females, whereas the relative expression of MusiCSP1 was the highest in primordial pupae. The strongest binding ability to the odor-binding protein MusiOBP1 was observed for β-citronellol. 3-Hydroxy-2-methyl-4-pyrone showed the strongest binding affinity to MusiCSP1. Our analysis suggests that MusiOBP1 and MusiCSP1 may play significant roles in mediating M. usitatus host recognition. This research will improve our knowledge of odorant-binding proteins and chemosensory proteins, which will in turn improve our understanding of insect olfactory systems.</p

Noninvasive measurement of pressure gradient across a coronary stenosis using phase contrast (PC)‐MRI: A feasibility study

PurposeTo investigate the feasibility of blood pressure difference measurement, ΔP, across the coronary artery using phase contrast (PC)-MRI for potential noninvasive assessment of the functional significance of coronary artery stenosis.MethodsThree-directional velocities in the coronary arteries acquired using 2D-PC-MRI were used with the Navier-Stokes equations to derive ΔP. Repeat phantom studies were performed to assess the reproducibility of flow velocity and ΔP. ΔP derived using PC-MRI (ΔPMR ) and that obtained using pressure transducer (ΔPPT ) were compared. Reproducibility of coronary flow velocity was assessed in healthy controls (n = 11). Patients with suspected coronary artery disease (n = 6) were studied to evaluate the feasibility of ΔPMR measurement across a coronary stenosis.ResultsPhantom: Good overall reproducibility of flow velocity and ΔP measurements and excellent correlation (ΔPMR vs ΔPPT ) was observed: intraclass correlation (ICC) of 0.95(Vz ), 0.72(Vx ), 0.73(Vy ), and 0.87(ΔPMR ) and R2  = 0.94, respectively. Human: Good reproducibility of coronary flow velocity was observed: ICC of 0.94/0.95(Vz ), 0.76/0.74(Vx ), and 0.80/0.77(Vy ) at cardiac phase 1/2. Significant (p = 0.025) increase in ΔPMR was observed in patients (6.40 ± 4.43 mmHg) versus controls (0.70 ± 0.57 mmHg).ConclusionΔPMR in the coronary arteries is feasible. Upon further validation using the invasive measure, ΔPMR has the potential for noninvasive assessment of coronary artery stenosis. Magn Reson Med 77:529-537, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine